Archive for the ‘mydogjesusbomb’ Category
A Brief History of “Cocktail” Drums
Posted by jake | Filed under mydogjesusbomb
I recently did what any rational human being would do that has no source of income and is in the midst of two months of unemployment. I treated myself to a two thousand dollar drum set. But oh man, this kit is a sweetie. It’s a Grestch Renown Maple Mod with the Deep Inca Gold Sparkle finish.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the classic Gretsch and Ludwig sets from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. I have this image in my head of a grungy basement jazz club or smoky, gaudy cocktail bar with a few tired, old musicians playing for free drinks night after night. In this scenario, the kit I picture is a classic mod with a sparkly champagne, gold or silver finish. I realize that I may have slightly odd standards for selecting musical instruments, but I like that look and feel way more than the typical Tama or Pearl sets with two rack toms, two floor toms and an entire fleet of cymbals. When it comes to drums, classic is where it’s at.
At this point you’ve probably realized that this is NOT a brief history of cocktail drums. Actually, I lack any historical knowledge of cocktail drums. I just like old looking sets that twinkle when the light catches them just so. I plan on using this set as a practice set and house ornament for the time being. As you can see from the image above, I have set it up in a lefty oriented configuration in an attempt to attain equal power and dexterity in the left side of my body as I used to have in my right. It’s been about a year since I stopped practicing regularly and I feel incredibly guilty about it. Hopefully now I’m at a point where I can get back into the flow of things. It’s amazing what a time-sink programming can become…
Welcome to San Francisco
Posted by jake | Filed under mydogjesusbomb
My name is Jake and I am new in town. This is my first blog post and although I have no idea what I can add to the already over-saturated blogosphere, I’m going to give this a shot and see if I can stick with it.
I moved here from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. I lived all over Manhattan and Brooklyn during my seven years in NYC. Prospect Heights falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. The neighborhood is densely packed with culture and ranges from expensive brown-stones to creepy, abandoned factories. We had a sweet apartment with a private terrace. Cooking was a big event, as well as grilling outside when the weather was nice. Here you can see my roommate Dave cooking a vagabond in the oven. I’m mostly vegetarian, so I had to take Dave’s word on the deliciousness of his new dish. We ate some bizarre stuff the last week in our apartment. Finishing up all the food in a refrigerator with a hard deadline leads to some odd combinations. The worst (and if you know me, you know that that translates to “the best”) was the tuna and banana sushi we made - dipped in shitake vinigrette salad dressing because of our lack of soy sauce.
Now I live on Bay street, right across from the Marina Safeway (Dateway?). I was shocked to see a flock of parrots fly by my window a few minutes ago. Is that normal? I was very surprised at first, but now I see that there is in fact a feral parrot population in San Francisco. It seems that there’s one group trying to get rid of the parrots because this is not their native habitat. Then there’s another group that is trying to protect the parrots because they seem happy and it’s so cool to have wild parrots living in North America. Hopefully, they’ll be joined soon by some bonobos and maybe an elephant or two. Then all those folks who bought Hummers to drive around urban San Francisco will be able to make some extra cash for gas by taking tourists on safaris around Golden Gate Park and the Marina.